A major component of electronic information access and retrieval is network accessible computer systems known as servers. High density servers (also known as blade servers) are implemented in “enclosures” mounted within racks. The servers electrically couple to a first side of a midplane board within the enclosure, and switch devices couple to a second side of the midplane board, thus forming complete server systems.
By way of the midplane board, the servers may couple to multiple types of switch devices. One type of switch device is a network switch device, which acts to perform message routing for a communication network. The servers communicate with the network switch devices across the midplane board using communication-based protocols, such as Ethernet.
Other switch devices with which the servers may communicate are storage switch devices. The servers themselves may have no, or relatively little, onboard hard drive storage space The hard drive storage space is made accessible to the servers through the storage switch devices coupled to the midplane board. The servers communicate with storage switch devices across the midplane board using storage-based protocols, such as Fibre Channel®, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS), and may also communicate with storage devices using other non-storage-based protocols, such as Peripheral Components Interconnect express (PCIe).
Yet still other switch devices with which the servers may communicate are parallel computing switch devices, which switch devices network the servers together for purposes of parallel computing. The servers communicate with parallel computing switch devices across the midplane board using cluster-networking protocols, such as InfiniBand®.
In order to support the possible switch devices to which the servers may need to communicate, the midplane board implements dedicated slots and signal paths for each type communication protocol. For example, a slot (and its respective connector on the midplane board) may be dedicated only to InfiniBand communication, and no other switch device will be operable in the slot. Creating dedicated slots and signal paths limits flexibility of a single enclosure, and may require manufactures to create multiple midplane boards and enclosures to support the differing needs of consumers